Night the Hunt review

The best part of video game reviews is being able to play a game you've never really heard of, and it leaves you with incredible emotions as a result. One of the latest such cases is the Lovecraftian-infused horror simulation DREDGE. The hero of today's material, the title Hunt the Night, was developed by the authors of Rise of the Third Power (you probably haven't heard anything about it either). The easiest way to describe Hunt the Night is to imagine The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past with elements from the Castlevania series. And it is in no way inferior to the classic 16-bit games of previous eras.

The story of Hunt the Night tells of a medieval world where people can go about their business during the day, but at night they are forced to hide from the monsters that appear. In the 9th century, the night began to increase. A group called "Stalkers" found ways to use the dark magic of the night to fight the oncoming darkness. The protagonist of the game, Vesper, is a typical Hunter/Stalker. However, the narrative, broken down into many quests, is far from the most interesting part of this game. Medhram, the world of Hunt the Night, has an incredible charm. The game contains a huge amount of knowledge about the world, which the player receives by studying items or while talking to different NPCs.

Dark Knowledge

Castlevania, Dark Souls and Bloodborne use similar gothic medieval worlds with monsters lurking in the dark. Some references will be seen by Berserk fans as well. Seething purple pools of mud are everywhere, and black tentacles reach out from every crack towards Vesper. The pixel graphics are great. This is typical 16-bit 2D RPG Maker style graphics. The sprites are closer to Earthbound than something over-detailed like Final Fantasy VI, but the slightly cartoonish characters work well with the quirky monster designs. My only complaint is that the flat graphics and dark color palette make some of the visuals hard to recognize. Sometimes this leads to me taking damage only to realize that this or that object is not just a background detail.

The core gameplay is very similar to Legend of Zelda - top-down 2D graphics. Vesper attacks with a melee sword. Dungeons are like labyrinths and full of puzzles. But Hunt the Night differs from Legend of Zelda in combat capabilities and the depth of this system. Other important aspects are dashing and shooting. Vesper has a dash that works as an evasion that grants temporary invulnerability. It also allows you to reduce or increase the distance between the heroine and her enemies, after which the girl can shoot them with a weapon. The pistol has a total of six bullets, but every three melee attacks Vesper accumulates 1 live projectile. It turned out to be a very funny system, backed up by tight control.

Extensive combat system

There are also elements of a role-playing game. However, they are closer to Legend of Zelda than to Final Fantasy. Vesper gradually increases his health and magicka. She gets different types of melee weapons and unlocks other types of bullets. There's a fun Hollow Knight-style setting to experiment with and create skill sets. The game is also incredibly difficult, and in order to destroy the bosses, you will have to pick up the right skills and equipment.

Hunt the Night doesn't put all its cards on the table right away. There are some amazing game-changing abilities that Vesper will only get after a few hours of his adventure. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t say anything, but I’ll emphasize that these are completely different mechanics that almost break the gameplay (in a good way). Hunt the Night constantly rewards the player for perseverance with some new elements.

Tangled like a maze, the world

The only issues I had with Hunt the Night were the overly complicated maps. These are very open locations in which it is easy to get lost. In fact, some people might like it. At first equally disappointing was Hollow Knight. I prefer a slightly more linear start to gradually get used to the setting and metroidvania elements. The areas in Hunt the Night were large and dark. But that's more of a personal quibble. Do you need to criticize something?

There are elements of horror in Hunt the Night. Even fans of the survival horror genre who don't usually play role-playing games will find something for themselves. I definitely felt the atmosphere of PS1-era Resident Evil with its backstory and similar puzzles. I also thought about 2D horror games like Corpse Party. Another major inspiration worth mentioning is Secret of Mana, which was a cross between Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy when it came out on the Super Nintendo. Moreover, the composer of Secret of Mana, Hiroki Kikuta, wrote the music for Hunt the Night as well.